Question

Spanish tribute records   ... The evidence provided by the documents of British and French colonies is not as definitive because the conquerors of those areas did not establish permanent settlements and begin to keep continuous records until the seventeenth century, by which time the worst epidemics had probably already taken place. 041  标志： The evidence   (provided by the documents of British and French colonies) is not as definitive    /because the conquerors   (of those areas) did not   establish permanent settlements and  did not    begin   to keep continuous records /until   the seventeenth century/, /by which time the worst epidemics had probably already taken place/ /.  解释：   主句的The evidence is not as definitive的最后的两个单词“as definitive”的用法比较特殊。这里是与前面的西班牙纪录所做的比较，as在此作副词，意思是to the same degree or amount <twice as long>，与常用的as...as...的意思相同，但用法不同：只用了一个as。另一个比较难的地方是在because从句中：在the conquerors   (of those areas)  did not   establish permanent settlements and  did not    begin   这一部分中，固定搭配not...until当中的not...的部分被克隆成两个，而第二个did not由于前面有一个表示并列的and，居然被省略掉了，造成了初学者阅读的困难。其实如果熟悉了GRE或GMAT的句式，读者根本不必去分析语法，只要把注意力集中在句子的意思上，就可以很容易地看出句子的真实含义。 5

Accepted Answer

gmat  意群训练： The evidence provided by the documents of British and French colonies is not as definitive because the conquerors of those areas did not establish permanent settlements and begin to keep continuous records until the seventeenth century   ，by which time the worst epidemics had probably already taken place   .  译文：   （由英法殖民者提供的）证据 就 不那么确定   ，/因为   （这些地区的）征服者   /在17世纪以前   / 没有   建立   起永久的居住点   ，也没有  开始   做连续的纪录，/而到那个时候，最严重的流行病可能已经开始了//。 复杂修饰+省略

en	Spanish tribute records ... The evidence provided by the documents of British and French colonies is not as definitive because the conquerors of those areas did not establish permanent settlements and begin to keep continuous records until the seventeenth century, by which time the worst epidemics had probably already taken place.
category	gmat
idx	041
parts	意群训练： The evidence provided by the documents of British and French colonies is not as definitive because the conquerors of those areas did not establish permanent settlements and begin to keep continuous records until the seventeenth century ，by which time the worst epidemics had probably already taken place .
mark	标志： The evidence (provided by the documents of British and French colonies) is not as definitive /because the conquerors (of those areas) did not establish permanent settlements and did not begin to keep continuous records /until the seventeenth century/, /by which time the worst epidemics had probably already taken place/ /.
cn	译文：（由英法殖民者提供的）证据就不那么确定，/因为（这些地区的）征服者 /在17世纪以前 / 没有建立起永久的居住点，也没有开始做连续的纪录，/而到那个时候，最严重的流行病可能已经开始了//。
explain	解释：主句的The evidence is not as definitive的最后的两个单词“as definitive”的用法比较特殊。这里是与前面的西班牙纪录所做的比较，as在此作副词，意思是to the same degree or amount <twice as long>，与常用的as...as...的意思相同，但用法不同：只用了一个as。另一个比较难的地方是在because从句中：在the conquerors (of those areas) did not establish permanent settlements and did not begin 这一部分中，固定搭配not...until当中的not...的部分被克隆成两个，而第二个did not由于前面有一个表示并列的and，居然被省略掉了，造成了初学者阅读的困难。其实如果熟悉了GRE或GMAT的句式，读者根本不必去分析语法，只要把注意力集中在句子的意思上，就可以很容易地看出句子的真实含义。
type	复杂修饰+省略
score	5

Records Evidence Conquerors Establish Permanent Settlements Begin Documents